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Monday, June 22, 2009

2008 Santa Rita 120 Carmenere

The 120 Carmenere from Santa Rita is a marvolous example of the potential of this varietal and why I think Carmenere is Chile's best hope for classic wines. If fact most of us wine lovers are familiar with the famous Clos Apalta wine from Casa Lapostolle, which recently won the Wine Spectator "Wine of the Year" award and that wine was made with 42% Carmenere. After tasting this wine and wines like the Clos Apalta I am convinced that this ancient French varietal is Chile's most valid attempt at greatness.

Now that I'm through with that mini rant lets get to the wine!!

On the nose I get huge luscious black raspberry aromas, combined with pepper, eucalyptus, and espresso grind. It's a beautiful aroma profile and one distinctively unique to Chile but has all the seduction and fruit of a California Cabernet.

On the palate the wine is just as big and delicious at the nose and boasts flavors of black raspberry, black cherry, espresso, chocolate, coco powder, and hints of pepper and dried herb. This is a spicy but voluptuous wine that has a long complex finish of black cherry, licorice, and coco.

To be quite honest I'm completely blown away by this wine. It is the best wine under ten dollars that I have tasted in my wine career and it beats out many California and French wines that are triple the price. Amazing Stuff! - seek it out! 91 points

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Randomly grabbed this at a grocery store an hour ago for $7. The first mouthful brought so much more than I expected that I decided to Google it and found this. I, too, am blown away at this value. I agree, absolutely one of the best wines under $10 that I have ever had. And what a finish!